Claymore

This little review was a long time coming. I’ve watched Claymore repeatedly off and on for years. Its one of my all time favorite animes. Let’s chat little about it. Strictly unprofessional of course!

Claymore is centered around a world filled with monsters called Yoma and the warriors that fight them. In particular we are taken on the journey of the lowest rank warrior, #47, Clare and this little boy she runs into named Raki. Clare became a warrior so she can find Priscilla, the killer of her friend/caretaker, Teresa who protected her when she was a child. The anime is appropriately titled after the warriors’ weapon which is a huge, heavy sword called a Claymore. The fumy thing about that is these warriors were engineered by the organization to be half human, half Yoma in order to have the strength to fight these monsters. Without knowing this simple fact, you’ll be scratching your head as into how in the world these petite woman are swinging these big swords so effortlessly.

Alright, let’s get on with the negatives. There were a few moments were I found Raki annoying and I wasn’t all too pleased with how they spent the entire anime bouncing off and on him, even to the point of having him trained by one of the strongest characters in the anime yet, he got almost no action whatsoever. The manga is not better and its kinda disappointing but considering he was never a real warrior like Clare and the rest, I couldn’t really say I was expecting that much. However, I was definitely expecting more from a character you spent the entire series building.

Clare being #47 of the warriors obviously she runs into more of her team but not all of them as they are literally scattered across the continent taking on missions given to them by the organization which created them. However, you do see a lot of them towards the end of the anime series and way more in the manga. With that being said, I felt the stories of the others a little lacking in the anime. The main reason for this, in my opinion, is because the series was too short. I felt that they could have added more episodes based them around the other warriors instead of Clare and the ones she came in direct contact with.

With all that being said, let’s get to the positives, due to anime being short, I found it rather fast paced. No fillers here! The action is non-stop and with the quick introduction of the warriors hidden evolution called an “Awakening” and how it relates to their energy called “Yoki”, it takes the fighting to another level. The drawing for this anime was well done from dark, damp forests and caves to beautiful cities and open lands. The way the characters struggled during fighting to laughing with each other gave the story a slight sense of realism and made the warriors seem more like strong humans instead of overpowered Gods which transferred over to the screen in the anime as well. Too often do you see drastic changes when you pull an anime out of its manga universe onto the TV screen but I think this series was done well despite its length.

The the villains were not just Yoma however, there were also former warriors who lost their humanity when they awakened called “Awakened Beings”. I’m not trying to detail out every aspect of the anime cause I definitely can but I’m only telling you about the Awakened Beings cause one of my fav characters is one of them. Easley, the King of North is also the one who takes a liking to Maki and we found out more about him when he becomes the leader of a huge Yoma uprising formed to take down the organization and anyone else in their way. Easley has a calm, intimidating but inviting demeanor about him and it kinda bothered me about how his story plays out in the manga. Yeah, I’m trying not to spoil it too much.

The Claymore series is high on action and low on drama just the way I like’em. I could go on for ages about this anime but its best for you to just see it for yourself and read the manga for what happens after the series ends. Yes, there’s much more after the series. It’s a damn shame there won’t be another season. 🙁 I encourage you to pick up this anime at your local store if they’re not charging you an arm and a left nut for it like a lot of mine are these days. 🙄